Of Hackers & Cowboys
by Forever Free Evergreen
Summary: What if Spike had a more active role in session 9. A little glimpse at what may have happened. R&R
1. session 1

**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Cowboy Bebop just the words below bar pieces taken straight from the script._

_I wanted to throw out something this month so I raked through my backburner files & found this: a fic I came up with after first watching the anime a while back. _

_Enjoy!_

**bebopqoded**

"I'm gonna have to pass this time"

Jet turned to stare incredulously at his partner who was leaning against the rail next to the hatch. Usually the carefree bounty hunter would jump at the chance to catch a big bounty and, with the price tag at eight million woolongs, for him to pass it up in favour of doing probably nothing but sleeping on the couch was definitely a surprise.

"You're leaving me alone with _her_?" He asked unsure if he was hearing things correctly referring to their other, self-proclaimed partner.

"Yeah, what's the problem? She's all gung-ho about it" Spike pointed out knowing that the more zeros to the tag the more eager she would be to try and bag the bounty herself. As in _all_ for herself

"I'm not the type to be led around by a woman" Jet grumbled.

"Then you'll have to lead _her_ around" Spike suggested.

"I'm even less the type to do _that_"

"You know, Jet, eight million is easier to divide by two than by three" Faye butted in not caring that they were talking about her as she slipped her hairband on. "It's a nice even number"

Plus a bigger share for yourself, the two male bounty hunters thought simultaneously. Despite the fact that they had let the woman stay on their ship, very grudgingly in the case of Spike, Faye had a habit of hogging the few bounties she had snagged solo to herself only to lose it to gambling. Not to mention she would also clean the fridge of all edibles even if it was Ein's dog food.

"Wow, I'm really surprised" Faye mocked looking pointedly at Spike. "A tough guy like you, afraid of hackers"

"Hackers are _boring_. And chasing them is more boring" Spike answered in way of explanation not at all ruffled by Faye's insult having had several bounty hunts on hackers before.

"Hackers are nerdy, pasty, tubby, little geeks with triple thick glasses. This one is probably a demented otaku with smelly feet" Faye proclaimed looking back on her time at high school. "So catching him will be a breeze"

The males of the Bebop, including Ein, had to wonder what rock she had been living under for how long to assume hackers were something like that. The hackers Spike and Jet had hunted previously were scrawny rats looking akin to accountants that had just been fired and were getting their own back on the system.

"It might have been like that when you were young, but that was a _long_ time ago" Jet scoffed reaching for his pack of smokes on the counter in front of him.

"What are you trying to say, Jet?" Faye asked coolly a subtle sharpness entering her voice that only Spike managed to pick out. "I'm starting to get old, like you?"

"Well you can't tell a woman's age by looking a-aack!"

Jet's comment was cut off by Faye placing the heel of her boot firmly into the space between the pads on his boot crushing the soft flesh beneath.

"And you can't tell what a woman will do by looking, so you'll have to be very careful" Faye said before walking off in a huff.

"Same with a _snake_!" Jet shot at her retreating back as he nursed his sore foot.

"You two make a lovely couple" Spike remarked chuckling in amusement at the scene before him. "I'll expect a souvenir from planet Earth"

Ignoring Faye's impatient call, Jet light his cigarette and took a calming draft before replying to Spike's remark.

"Nothing good comes from the Earth anymore" He said exhaling a cloud of white smoke. "So you'll just have to find something for _yourself_ during your search"

Spike, in the process of pulling out his own pack of smokes out of his pocket, stared down at the ex-detective in shock and surprise.

"_What_?" He exclaimed.

"You heard me" Jet replied undaunted by the look he was receiving from him. "It _was_ your ship that ate up most of our savings not even chasing Decker"

Spike growled. He had managed to get himself into a fight with three brothers who were also bounty hunters and had messed up his prairie oyster whilst they were roughing it against a deep space trucker. In retaliation, the three brothers messed up his ship so badly that Jet had to literally take it apart just to fix it. Now he was really wishing he had taken that thick wad of woolongs from VT when the trucker offered it.

"Fine" He resigned stomping after Jet towards the hanger. "But we're definitely buying some meat if we're having bell peppers again!"

**bebopqoded**

_How was that for an appetizer? It was originally a oneshot but I wanted to tweek & update it before publishing so I broke it down in several places. Providing my job doesn't over tax me, I shoud _hopefuly_ get the rest of it done within the week._

_Review if possible & 'til next time_

_Watch this space, Cowboys!_


	2. session 2

_Disclaimers on chapter 1_

_Figured I'd give more than just a morsel for you to fight over._

_Enjoy!_

**bebopqoded**

The plan was simple. Faye would check the transmitters in the area where the hacker was supposedly at the time of the crime whilst Jet got the scoop on the hackers in said area in hopes of ascertaining the probable culprit. From the moment they launched the only thing simple was the meaning of the word itself.

Within minutes of beginning her search, Faye, assuming there was not going to be many transmitters among all the carnage the daily rock showers were creating, gave up when her screen was peppered with yellow triangles pointing out transmitters. Jet had barely made it halfway along an old train station but already had many colourful profiles about one 'Radical Edward' going from a former basketball pro to an alien.

As for Spike, the reluctant cowboy just landed at the first clearing he could find then just wandered around aimlessly not caring if he stumbled into the hacker himself. Fed up of walking about in the midday heat, the cowboy leisurely strolled into one of the many crumbling buildings not at all curious as to the smouldering remains of the ISSP patrol cruiser outside.

From the amount of junk that had accumulated in the room he had walked into, Spike figured the place was used as some sort of storage place. It did not stop him from picking his way across the room towards the comfy looking chair over in the far corner unused for quite a while judging by the dust cloud he suddenly disappeared in as he sat down.

"How can Earthlings live in this mess?" He coughed waving the dust away from his face and pulling out his pack of smokes intent on letting the nicotine settle in his lungs rather than whatever he had just inhaled from that dust cloud.

He had finally managed to produce a flame from his lighter when he heard it: a voice whooping as if accomplishing something big in the next room. Thinking it was just some homeless person Spike just shrugged it off.

"Satellite from days of old, lead me to your access code!" The strange rhyme coming from what sounded like a young female caused Spike to pause in his task as he realised what he had possibly stumbled upon.

"Sounds like Lady Bounty's finally blessing me" Spike grinned putting away his light but keeping the unlit cigarette in his mouth as he stood up and quietly made his way towards the room where the supposed bounty hacker was doing whatever she was doing.

Unlike the room he was just in, this room had all the junk pushed around the walls. Glancing around, Spike noticed pictures taped to various pieces of junk each bearing an uncanny resemblance to a certain spaceship that he was very familiar with. Smack dab in the middle of the empty space, sitting cross legged in front of a homemade computer, a well-tanned kid Spike pegged to be around twelve seemed oblivious to his entry as she waved her arms in front of her as if doing some sort of ritual.

"Satellite that got hacked in to" She declared in a spooky voice blissfully unaware of the cowboy that was now standing directly behind her. "Tell me where you are! Ed wants those coordinates!"

"And what is 'Ed' going to do with them?" Spike asked curiously.

Currently leaning back as she waved her arms about in front of her, as if attempting to draw something out of the computer itself, the young hacker squawked in surprise before losing balance and landing flat on her back and remained motionless.

Unable to tell whether the girl had fainted due to the green goggles covering her eyes, Spike leaned down and cautiously pulled back the item in question allowing them to rest on the nest of red hair as two golden eyes gazed up at him. The eyes reminded him of a cat and he was not sure if the red marks on her cheeks were just her blushing or because of the goggles she wore constantly.

"Spike-person or Jet person from Bebop?" She asked after a minute still not blinking as she stared up at the man towering over her unnerving him slightly.

"Uh, yeah?" Spike replied unsure how a scrawny brat could know his name let alone his partner and the ship's despite meeting for the first time right now.

No sooner as the words left his mouth, Spike quickly stepped back several paces as the girl sprang up and practically bounced and somersaulted around the room with glee.

"Bebop find Ed! Wha-hoo! Go fly-fly! Capture bounty heads!" Were probably the only snippets of babble Spike could catch and actually understand from the over excited girl before landing on all fours like a cat in front of him. "Edward had been waiting forever-ever and ever!"

"You sound like you know this 'Edward' pretty well" Spike noted unsure of what to make of the child that seemed to house more energy than a resin-reactor.

"Uh-huh" The girl nodded before pointing at herself. "Because Edward _is_ Edward"

The cigarette dropped from Spike's mouth as he finally made the connection.

"You mean _you're_…?"

"Ed is short for Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the Fourth" _Ed _explained rolling backwards into a handstand and waving her feet at Spike. "Nice. To. Meet. You"

"That's…quite a mouthful" Spike said unsure of how to reply to the introduction as he scratched the back of his head.

"Edward made it up herself. Pretty neat, huh?" Edward asked as if asking about some toy she had just made herself out of bits and bobs.

"You made it up?" Spike asked confused getting a vigorous nod of the head from the girl. "Then how can you be the fourth?"

Edward stopped acting like a bobble head and lay down, or rather flopped down, on the ground propping her head in her hands as her foot arched over her back to scratch the top of her head.

"Because it took Edward _four times_ to say without tongue twisting and turning, tangling and tying up in knots!" She answered cheerfully before a sound from her computer caught her attention compelling her to roll head over feet towards the box.

"Does this kid have any _solid_ bones in her body?" Spike muttered watching as the human pretzel stopped on her head then twist her lower half round flipping so that she was the right way up in front of the computer and began typing with her feet as she pulled her goggles back over her eyes with one hand. "I knew Earthlings were weird, but this is kid tops it"

Cautiously walking back over to where the girl was furiously typing at a speed Spike did not think possible, Spike peered over Ed's shoulder watching in amazement as the girl hacked into a restricted area and gained access to a satellite mainframe within seconds picking out the exact satellite that was supposedly hacked by the girl herself.

"What's this? Ed's got the right satellite" Ed pondered assumingly to herself as Spike had no idea what was going on. "But there hasn't been any contact from Earth at all. Only relays from other satellites"

"Wait a minute" Spike cut in making sure he was not hearing things wrongly. "Are you saying you _didn't_ hack into the satellite and make those carvings?"

"Nuh-uh" Ed replied tilting her head far back so she could look at Spike whilst her feet continued to type unnerving Spike a little more. "Ed was trying to help find bounty head for Bebop so that Bebop would help Ed in return"

Spike raised an eyebrow at the girl's explanation. "And just what would we have to do for you in return? Providing we accept your help, that is"

Edward stopped typing and removed her goggles before standing at attention in front of Spike looking serious for the first time since they had met.

"Edward wants to become member of Bebop" She said before grinning wide enough to split her face in two.

**bebopqoded**

_Review if possible & 'til next time_

_Watch this space, Cowboy!_


	3. Session 3

_Disclaimers on chapter 1_

_One more part after this & I'm done!_

_Enjoy for now!_

**bebopqoded**

"Sorry. No deal" Was the cowboy's instant reply.

Spike was sure he was hearing things now. This little kid wanted to leave what was sure to be a life of easy living for her and join him and Jet as they chased after people who could break her neck as if it were a twig. Not to mention she was at least one of three things on his hate list.

"Why can't Ed join?" The girl asked her smile disappearing but looking more curious than sad for reasons Spike could not fathom.

"Because there are three things I _really _hate: Women with attitudes, animals and _kids_" Spike told her leaning in so that he was almost eye level with the girl. "And frankly, I don't know if you're just _one_ of them"

"Ed will let you take _aaaaalllllllll_ the reward" Edward offered cheerfully not at all fazed about being on his least favourite list.

Oh, if Faye had been here to hear that. Spike could easily see the lavender haired thief just whisking the kid onto the ship if she heard those words and was sorely tempted to take along just to see how accurate his imagination was to reality. That is, if he was not flabbergasted that a prepubescent brat, who should have been close to tears after his statement, could still be happy-go-lucky while continuing her attempt to try and join the crew. As much as he would hate to admit it, it actually impressed him how she could stay so sunny.

"Tempting" He finally managed to say even smiling slightly at the girl. "But no"

"Awwwww. Please-please?" Ed asked clasping her hands before her looking, for the first time Spike had seen her, slightly upset.

"Sorry, kid" Spike shrugged picking up his dropped cigarette and heading towards the door. "But, as appealing as that sounds, I'll have to pass"

Edward looked down at her feet watching her toes wriggle over the ground as she tried to think of something to persuade the cowboy to take her with him. Out of all the three hundred million plus bounty hunters out there, she had chosen the Bebop because she felt that they were different from the rest. Not to mention that, now that she had met him, Spike-person had green hair that looked like Ed's, only fuzzier.

"Then again" She heard Spike say and looked up to see him looking at something beside the door. "Having someone on the ship who can actually pull their own weight around might make a good change"

Looking over at the pintsized hacker, Spike could not help but grin as he watched Ed's face change from shock to pure joy before leaping high into the air whooping wildly. The grin turned into a grimace as she then tackled him full speed in the stomach.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squealed squeezing Spike hard enough he thought his ribs might crack.

"Yeah…sure…" Spike gasped surprised by the strength in the girl's scrawny arms finally breathing easy once she let go and returned to her computer in order to keep her end of the deal.

Massaging his sore sides as he stumbled into the next room, Spike began wondering if this was not such a bright idea when he heard his comms go off.

'Spike, you there?' Jet's voice could be heard coming from the device.

"Yeah, what's up?" Spike replied sitting back down on the dusty old chair pulling out his communicator and seeing the face of his partner on the screen. "Got anything on our target?"

'Not an awful lot, I'm afraid' Jet admitted scratching the back of his head. 'Faye gave up before she even began but I've at least managed to get a possible ID on our hacker'

Spike raised his eyebrows feigning interest. He already knew who the supposed hacker was but decided to hear what Jet had found out. Edward too seeing as the girl had pried herself away from her computer and was now peeking into the room Spike was in to eavesdrop on the conversation.

'The guy we're looking for is a hacker by the name of "Radical Edward"' At the mention of her name, Edward pointed at herself grinning. "He's an ex-basketball pro, Hindu, guru, drag queen, alien"

Spike found himself grinning slightly as he compared Jet's description to the real deal who had disappeared again. He reckoned the last thing might be possible. After all, how many kids these days could hack into an old satellite system as well as find out the names of a specific ship of bounty hunters for who knows how long.

"If anyone can get the guy by that description, I'll pay the bounty myself" Spike snorted.

'Well, what have _you_ found out?' Jet retorted glaring through the screen at him.

"Spi-Spi!" Edward suddenly cried barrelling round the corner with her arms out pretending she was a plane before skidding to a halt in front of the cowboy.

'Who was that?' Jet asked only seeing Spike's confused face.

Spike replied by pointing the communicator at Edward allowing Jet to see the kid. "Say hello to Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski the fourth also known as the ex basketball playing, Hindu, guru, drag queen, alien "Radical Edward""

"Hi-hi!" Edward greeted waving at the screen.

'W-wait a minute. Are you telling me that this kid is the hacker we're trying to find?' Jet asked sounding sceptical.

Seeing that his partner would be wanting proof before believing him, Spike let a lopsided grin appear on his face as an idea came to mind.

"I'll call you back" He told Jet before hanging up and looking pointedly at Edward. "Feel like working for your boarding pass?"

Edward, currently sitting like a gargoyle on the floor in front of him, tilted her head to the side looking like a confused pup before grinning like a Cheshire cat when Spike told her what he wanted her to do.

**bebopqoded**

_Review if possible (just so I know if they were in character & what not) & 'til next time_

_Watch this space, Cowboy!_


	4. Session 4

_Disclaimers on chapter 1_

**bebopqoded**

"He's _what_?" Faye asked thinking she had heard wrongly.

"You heard me. He's with some kid who, apparently, is the hacker we're looking for" Jet repeated still not believing it himself.

Faye snorted in frustration. The lazy bum in a slept in suit known as Spike Spiegel seemed to have all the luck even when dealt with a bad hand. If it were possible, she would have stolen that luck from him at the first opportunity and used it to win big at the races clearing her debts in the process.

"How do we know she's not some random kid he found whose taken a shine to him and just wants to brag about the attention she's giving him?" Faye challenged.

"Oh, is that why you're jealous?" Jet countered managing to hold down the laughter at the thought of those two getting together and not killing each other every ten minutes. Ein barked in agreement with him.

"I am not jealous!" Faye snarled her face red as her jacket.

Jet, having more sense than the rest of the crew put together, decided to quit while he was ahead. Right now he was currently looking through an ISSP database showing several bounties including Radical Edward who apparently was being jammed by them in an attempt to capture him, or her, according to what he read. He was about to call Spike again when the screen went hazy before all the letters scrambled and scattered about bouncing around the screen.

"What the..?" He muttered in confusion watching as the letters formed the outline of a smiley face.

'Beeeeeeebop!' A girl's voice could be heard calling before the face of the girl Spike had shown him appeared on screen in an interactive video channel. Something the computer did not have.

"Who is that?" Faye asked looking at the smiling brat on the screen.

'This proof enough for you guys?' A familiar voice asked as the girl on the screen leaned out the way so that Spike could show his face to the surprised crew of the Bebop.

Jet had to grudgingly admit that Spike seemed to have hit pay dirt once again. One could only wonder how that lunkhead does that?

"Okay fine, she's the real deal" He grumbled at the screen. "So what now?"

'I'll tell you once we get back to the ship. It might be easier to explain then' Spike told them ignoring Edward who was jumping about behind him squealing something along the lines of 'fly-fly'.

"Wait a minute!" Faye interrupted. "What do you mean "we"? You're not letting her join us, are you?"

Before Spike could answer the infuriated femme fatale, Edward chose this moment to pounce on him and use his head as a head rest for her own. It was amusing to the two bounty hunters watching the screen at least.

'Edward does not want the reward' She explained. 'Ed wants to become member of Bebop and, in return, Bebop can get all of reward'

Faye was hooked before the girl had finished her explanation and gotten thrown off her disgruntled human cushion. Why couldn't all kids be as good as this one?

"What are you waiting for, lunkhead?" She asked of him. "Get back here quickly"

'Yeah, yeah' Spike grumbled while in the background Edward could now be heard saying 'lunkhead-lunkhead' in a singsong voice before the connection was terminated.

"You were quick to change your game" Jet speculated in amusement.

"When someone offers you a big wad of woolongs, it's only natural that you accept it" Faye said before walking away.

"No wonder you're in so much debt" Jet muttered which had Ein barking in agreement earning him a pat on the head.

An hour later, Spike had returned to the Bebop with Edward in tow and the former fishing vessel was now heading back into space as the eccentric hacker told them all she knew about the satellite whose AI she had been conversing with whilst Spike had been talking to Jet.

"So the CPU on an abandoned satellite just decided to do some laser carvings all on its own, is that right?" Jet asks summing up, what he hoped, what Edward had just told them.

"Uh-huh" Edward replied managing to nod whilst balancing her computer on her head whilst holding the keyboard in her arms.

"That's bizarre" Faye stated.

"It gets even more bizarre: this is a _weather_ satellite, so no one has ever thought of checking it"

Both Faye and Spike, although the latter hid it well, looked both at Jet and Edward in surprise as they realised what this meant. The eight million woolong bounty was on a machine not a person. While that was a shock to their system, the problem now was how to access the satellite given that the codes were lost years before. Fortunately, Edward was on hand to help them with that.

"Since MPU's access codes can't be used, you'll have to go to the satellite itself, destroy the transmitters then create a direct link and download MPU" Edward explained typing on the keyboard in her arms as pictures of the transmitters and access drive were shown on her computer's vid-screen. "But you'll have to do it without using your computers for shooting and flying"

"You mean, do it all _manually_?" Jet asked in shock.

"If you don't, all the attack satellites will pick up your signal and attack. There's zillions and they've all got kill-lasers" Ed told them looking excitedly at each of the three cowboys in turn. "Wow, is that too hard for you?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say hard" Jet replied after a moment sarcasm dripping from each word. "More like _impossible_! It's like trying to play baseball _without_ a bat!"

While Faye nodded in agreement, Spike just grinned getting more gungho about what was once a boring hunt.

"Now _this_ is the kind of stuff I _like_" Spike proclaimed causing Jet and Faye to stare at him as if he was insane as he walked off towards the hanger and his mono-racer.

Several hours later, after a brief but intense space battle with the attack satellites before successfully managing to download Edward's friend MPU, the Bebop was once again drifting through space towards the space gate to Mars after a successful hunt. There was a slight drawback to the celebrations however.

"And once again, we have no bounty. Not a single woolong" Jet grumbled turning off the vid-screen where Big Shot was playing stating that machine's cannot be declared bounties. "Like I said: nothing good ever comes from Earth anymore"

"I wouldn't say that" Spike disagreed walking up to the former detective who was currently sitting in the ships pilot seat. "We got ourselves a bona fide, grade A hacker"

Jet had to agree with him on that. With Edward now with them, they would hopefully be able to find and capture bigger bounties before one of the other three hundred thousand odd bounty hunter rivals of theirs got to them. Probably a less than fair trade but a good compensation none the less. It still did not answer one question though.

"Why did you let her join us? I though kids was one of your biggest hates" He asked the fuzzy haired cowboy knowing that there was now one of each of said dislikes neatly gathered on his ship.

"You'll see" Was all Spike said as he lit a cigarette and began inhaling the death stick's incense.

"Jet! Turn this thing around!" Faye's voice echoed from the main room where she had probably just heard about what had happened to their reward.

It was easy to guess that, seeing as there was no longer any money in it Edward's stay on the Bebop had come to a quick end. And yet, Spike was smiling as if waiting for this very moment.

As curious as Jet was about what his partner was grinning about, his attention was brought elsewhere by a bright yellow smiley face appearing on his monitor followed by the sound of the hanger door opening. Unable to figure out what was going on, Jet turned to look at Edward who had appeared with her computer balanced on top of her head again, a piyoko firmly clenched in her teeth and some sort of controller in her hands.

"I'd take that back if I were you, Faye" Spike advised obviously knowing what was about to happen.

Faye arrived on the bridge just in time to see her own Redtail take off and start careering through space trying to mimic what Spike had done in his Swordfish earlier on by itself. She only realised Edward was controlling it due to the airplane noises she was making as she steered the mono-carrier this way and that in an unrefined pattern that could result in a crash at any moment.

Jet meanwhile was staring at Spike with a questioning look in his eye. He had no idea that the cowboy in question had noticed the very same controller Edward had in her hands back at the dilapidated building next to a small replica of the Bebop made out of junk and had connected it to the crashed patrol cruiser outside said building. Needless to say, Spike decided to just let her come along instead of being forced back by the hacker in question.

"How does that lunkhead do it?" He could not help but mutter as he watched the man walk away to his favourite couch for a little shut eye.

Making himself comfortable on the couch, Spike allowed himself to drift into dreamland knowing full well that the new addition would definitely make life a bit more interesting on the ship. He would come to regret it the moment Edward landed on him as she vaulted the couch in an attempt to run away from a fuming Faye.

**See you, Space Cowboy…**

_Hope you liked it._

_Review if possible & 'til next time_

_Watch this space & peace out!_


End file.
